Friday, 6 September 2013

Oh Fame.

Just in case y'all were snoozing last week - I was in the paper! Speaking out about mental health, depression, self harm, panic attacks and all those lovely topics. On the bright side I got to mention how hypnotherapy was helped me. You can read the article here. Enjoy xxx

15 comments:

Hi, I just read your article in the paper which then made me interested enough to look up your blog page which is something I've never used before. I found your Blogging very interesting and I can relate to a lot of what you are saying, there are differences with our situations and you seem to have a really good support network round about you, I can see that you have a lot of people to be grateful of. At the minute I'm only managing to be grateful of my family and thinking about the outside world scares the shit out of me. I used to go to work and put up with my feelings but it got to the point that I couldn't make it into work and I ended up phoning in at the last minute saying I couldn't make it in because of sheer anxiety, and panic. This whole year has been like shit and only now do I feel like I'm getting somewhere.... Unfortunately for me it's in my mums house and I'm still not ready to be on my own in Glasgow. I was up last week and could only make staying in the house for a few days and found it really hard making the train to get back to my mums (was meeting Psychiatrist at home in Glasgow). Real life scares the shit out of me at the minute, and there are very few things that I can take an interest in so for me to read your article and want to respond is a success. I think your fortunate to have people round about you, I have always kept people away from me because of the way I feel. However I couldn't not write to you as I feel the same way, but I do admire that you actually want to speak about what you feel. I have struggled to do this and therefore have been battling on my own(because of my own decisions that is). It is good to see you have taken the interest to detail your situation and write about it all :-) hopefully I havn't said to much as I know I just detailed myself a little, I just couldn't avoid saying something....

Lovely to hear from you, even although it is a horrible thing to be going through. I hope you managed to look through all my posts on mental health, and although it is really horrible it does get better - not over night, and you do have to work at it, but it happens.

I completely understand how you feel about the train - that was my idea of hell, but I am getting there - still don't love being on the train myself - but I can do it, and it doesn't feel too bad.

I think it is always important to have people you can talk to, anxiety can be so isolating, especially when it is hard to leave the house. I do have a great support network, but in the past I've had a not so great support network. I think family is so important to getting well, having your mum for support will help you.

I know just now everything will feel really small, like you're not living your life to the full, don't worry - I promise it will come back. And you'll have the whole world to explore - if you want to.

I'm glad you felt you could get in touch. Hopefully things will be better for you soon, although even by commenting on this, you are helping yourself to get better.

My main issue has been medication. It feels like it's the only answer the professionals have got although we do meet regular to speak and this is considered treatment.

Things were way too rough for me alone in Glasgow, I needed to get out of that atmosphere for some time. The doctor is talking about another medication, but I have lost faith in the stuff. I really know it isn't a magic formula and I need to get through this myself. I'm on a much lower dose than I was prescribed because it wasn't really helping and the panic attacks were/are only realer now than they were before. By that I mean intense, as before I could avoid them whereas now it's much more immediate, and as you said (not in these words) life threatening.

I'm interested in this hypnotherapy you mentioned, can I ask how you managed to get involved with that? I'm currently meeting a psychologist and an occupational therapist as well as a psychiatrist, but feel like I really need to wind down in real time, rather than getting issued with another drug.

As I said our meetings together are considered treatments, and they are progressive. I feel that medication might not be the solution I'm after. I have been experiencing the same things as what you have mentioned, including suicidal thoughts due to a lack of solution of my feelings, I have just been experiencing these things in different areas in my life. They sound the same none the less.

I'm going for a look at those sites you mentioned, to see what I can come across.

I have seen adverts on television about two of the sites but never thought to look into it as the pressure of meeting doctors is an awful lot for me (more before, as now I have calmed down a lot, however I do still find it challenging.

I'm not sure that there is anything really that I can get from those sites, I have phone numbers if there's someone I need to speak to in Glasgow (south crisis phone line), I know a couple of the people there so that's been helpful. However, I haven't heard of the human givens so I might source a copy of that from the library, might be interesting to read up on.

I know how you feel about medication. I do take medication, and I'm honestly not sure if it helps me, or makes me feel worse - that might not be what you want to hear, but I honestly can't make my mind up about it.

Another thing you might want to look at is mindfulness, this is their website http://bemindful.co.uk/ .

Mindfulness is all about enjoying the present, not worrying about the future, or be troubled by the past. I'm starting to learn about it just now, as I was recommended to by my psychologist, and I think it will be really helpful.

I tried hypnotherapy when I felt I really wasn't getting anywhere with my illness. I had been recommended Clyde Valley Hypnotherapy by a family friend. This is the website http://www.clyde-valley-hypnotherapy.com/. Have a look, and see what you think.

I hope this helps, let me know how you get on. Remember for every bad day there has got to be a good day (hopefully more than one).

I'm glad that's your thoughts because I feel the same way and I'm pretty insecure about taking it. It helped when I was in hospital but never done the same thing for me when I was at work. Hence why I'm off sick at the minute and not trusting medication anymore. I feel alone in the matter because my mum wants to know all about it and I don't even know what the hell it does anymore.

I'm going to look into the hypnotherapy, but something tells me it is going to be expensive because there is a chiropractic unit in the same building and that is a costly thing.

I think the mind fulness thing is the kind of idea I need because I feel stuck in certain things and don't seem to be able to move as fast as I want to, but I need to be very patient because I don't understand my illness.

Spoke with psychologist today about the hypnotherapy and he thinks its something worth looking into, but he's not sure if I would respond well to the treatments. I said about how I had read about your story in the paper and could relate to some of the major aspects of your condition and I wanted to perhaps move ahead with treatments. He is going to have a look and I meet him next Thursday again.

I will be speaking to my mum about it when I return to her house. As for me I'm just in my flat taking things one thing at a time after managing to battle agains some of my demons to get home last night, and today I went out to church and said hello to a few old faces.

Hopefully I can arrange something effective that will help me along with recovery. I've yet to have a proper look at mindfulness but we were speaking about something similar today.

No problem at all! Just as long as your know there are so many options out there, and you don't have to try only one. As I've said sometimes a combination of things works well, it's all about finding what works for you, and not giving up until you get there.

You sound like you have a good support network, with your mum and the church, keeping in touch with people is important - helps pull you out of the down days.

Sadly the majority of all that had been true about me, I think that's kinda sad because I never thought my life would turn out like this what so ever...

Stuff like that motivates me to get better. However there is one thing that is really pissing me off just now, and its why is my stomach always upset and why won't my belly return to where it once was!!! So irritating like you can't believe. I go to the gym regularly so I'm expecting it to go away, but my belly is sore whenever I face the world. It's bullshit

It is as you say, and its been like this for a while, there are good days and bad days. It's rather frustrating when I want to be getting on with my life and coping with it, and just can't. Not won't, but can't.

The meeting itself was OK, I still find it hard talking about my situation so I guess I do my best. I've been issued with another medication, and I'm actually feeling alright about it.

I've been told that it does not make you as hungry, which is a good thing. Hoping it works out better for me.

Now I'm out the city I plan to take things as easy as possible, not due back until next week :-)